Overdue Update (Photo Heavy)

It's been a while blah blah blah.  No explanations because no one cares about that.  On to the miniatures!

First of all, I got an airbrush and compressor for my birthday in October.  Nothing fancy.  It's an Iwata Neo.  You can generally find them for forty to fifty bucks.  It's a nice entry level brush.  It's not really suited to detail work, but it's more than able enough for basecoating and experimentation with the intent of upgrading at a later date.

Here's an example of the kind of results I've been able to achieve so far with it.  I think it's very smooth and this result was achieved in a fraction of the time it would have taken with a brush.

Miniatures!

Assembled and magnetized a Talos.  I was originally going to work it so that I could switch between the Talos and Cronos, but I dropped that idea.  1) Because the Cronos, when taken in the context of all the other choices we have in our Heavy Support slots, is lackluster.  2) It would have taken a larger number of my precious magnets.  So, I magnetized both arms and the tail weapon mount.  After the fact, I'd realized that magnetizing the shoulder sockets was stupid.  I should have magnetized the forearm joins.  At the time, I'd reasoned that the snug push fit forearms were enough to switch on the fly.  Unfortunately, they get more loose each time you switch.  Duh huh?

My Archon.  Fully magnetized so that I can make just about any HQ/wargear mix I want.  I might have posted this guy before, but I can't be bothered to go back and look.  I just ordered some bits from the warstore's thanksgiving weekend sale to make this guy into The Duke as well.  Depicted here are the uber expensive CC monster and the standard(Read: Cheap) Archon set up.

My Lady Malys Counts As.  I'm still mulling over whether I want to leave her as is or make a plasticard fan.  I'm a big fan of the sculpt despite the unit the miniature actually represents being of questionable quality.  I got a shamefully large amount of pleasure out of the models pose allowing me to pin her to the skulls on the base. Like she's gliding across the battlefield.  At least, that's the way I like to see it.

I'm currently running the Archon above, Lady Malys, and eight Incubi in a Raider.  Super expensive!  Here's the breakdown on the charge:  fourteen S3 attacks at I7, four S5 I6 attacks, and twenty one S4 I5 attacks.(IIRC)  All with power weapons.  It's very deadly, but I do miss my Haemy.  He just doesn't fit that well with the Incubi because anything that makes it through their armor will likely negate FNP anyway.  Ahh, but when they get Furious Charge on them...look out!  It's a deadly unit with fair staying power.  Plus, the redeployment hijinks Malys brings to the table keeps my opponent guessing.

Now, if only I could get the GK players out there to acknowledge that all their powers are psychic powers and "immune" leaves very little room for interpretation.  In my mind, even Hammerhand should be negated.  I can acknowledge the grey area though.  A lot of people would argue that only psychic shooting attacks are effected.(cough GK Players cough)  I wish GW would FAQ'd this...then again...it's a Xenos vs. Marine issue so I'm sure if a FAQ was released Lady Malys would be rendered absolutely useless.

Some work done on my Wyches.  Still lots to do, but progress is progress.  I've exceeded my upload limit so single shots will have to be posted tomorrow or so.  For now, here's a group shot.  The Hekatrix is fully magnetized.  I only included one special weapon Wyche in the squad because I rarely run a full ten.  If I do I like to save the points.

Poll: Help me decide

I'm at a cross roads regarding my Dark Eldar.  I decided to renovate them a few weeks ago and part of this decision involves whether to stick with my original scheme or a new one.  The bloody red scheme is the original. The green and gold is a more traditional DE scheme of edge highlights and dark paint for the majority of the surface area.

If you feel like weighing in; please comment on which one you think looks better.  In the end, the decision is my own, but I'd honestly like some input.

I wasn't using my usual camera so if the pictures are too dark please say so and I'll reshoot them.

Magnetized Razorwing WIP

I need to clean this Razorwing up because I got a lot of superglue finger prints on it.  The green stuff is fresh so I still need to scrub and sand it down.  I used 1/16" by 1/32" magnets on the missiles, moorings, and dark lances.  To magnetize the gun mounts I just sawed off the tabs on the back of the Dark Lances and glued them into the slots.  Then I drilled holes into those.  1/8" magnets on the stand and undercarriage.

Magnetizing Dark Eldar Infantry

For all intents and purposes I've scrapped my Kabalite Warriors in favor of redoing them with magnets and a, hopefully, better paint job.  This will allow me to customize their weapons loadouts.  They can also pull double duty as Trueborn when I need them too.

I did a little trial and error investigating and I've come to the conclusion that the best size for magnetizing DE is 1/16" by 1/32".  These are very tiny magnets that fit perfectly in the slim shoulders and torsos of DE models.  I've found that the perfect drill bit to use with this size magnet is a 1/8".  It creates a hole just a tad bit bigger than the magnet so the fit is snug without being a bother.  This is important because, again, these are really tiny magnets that can be a bit annoying when handled with man hands.

Normally, I'd suggest covering the magnet with green stuff, but in this case its counter productive.  The magnet is just powerful enough to hold a limb.  If you added a layer of green stuff I'm not sure how well it would attract its counterpart magnet.

Reference photo.  The top line of magnets are 1/8" by 1/16".  I use these for Terminators and Marines.  The bottom magnets are the 1/16" by 1/32".  There are 96 of them in this photo.

Dark Eldar FAQ Update

DE Faq Update Here

So, it would appear that all they did was update the Crucible of Malediction's rules.  No big surprises.  I already played the item this way.  Kind of strange that they released an entire FAQ for this.  Maybe a Dev at GW plays Grey Knights?


Q: Does every psyker in a unit of psykers, which are in
range of the Crucible of Malediction when it is opened,
have to take a Leadership test? (p60)
A: Yes. The notable exceptions to this are units with the
Brotherhood of Psykers special rule. These units just
take a single test, and will loose a single model if
failed.

So...pretty much the only psyker defense, which is offensive, is still virtually useless against an army composed entirely of psykers.  Thanks?  I don't know why they felt the need to clear this up though.  If you read the CoM info and the Brotherhood of Psykers blurb in the GKC it was pretty clear how this would play out.  AbusePuppy, I believe it was, pretty much spelled it out when I brought up the CoM a while ago.



Q: Does the Crucible of Malediction affect vehicles that
are also psykers? (p60)
A: No.


Basically, vehicles that are psykers...somehow don't count as Psykers.  Despite being driven by Psykers.  This is kind of stupid in my opinion.  I know that GW prefers to act like a vehicle has no passengers while its on the table and intact, but...come on.

It's a 20 point piece of wargear that's virtually useless against more than a single model in an entire army.(in most cases)  Hell, a single model that's always LD10.  How often do people screw up rolling under a ten?  Throw us a bone.  It even has random range!  Why would anyone take this now?

And...that't it!  No one's sent them an email about, oh I don't know, errata'ing the Court of the Archon rules so that people might actually buy the models they're putting out?  I thought for sure that they'd change the 1-* listing.  Especially, since the internet has declared that GW only writes rules to sell models.

Completed my test Wrack and a Grey Knight WIP.

So this is what my Wracks will look like for the most part.  The skin will be a bit different for the others as I've come to the conclusion that dry brushing will be easier and faster than the method I used on this one.  Probably cleaner looking as well.

The Grey Knight is a test mini for my first commission.  I know, why right?  I'm not a very good painter, but I guess this guy thinks its better than he can do.  Who am I to argue?  I'm doing it for super cheap, but this'll still probably net me enough cash to get another Raider, Venom, or a Razorwing.  Plus, its more power armor practice for my neglected Space Wolves.  More to come.  This is a Purifier and its my second attempt at white.  I went for a cool tone as I thought it would suit the silver armor.

Scourges WIP

Only three are assembled so far.  I'm waiting on a bits order for my second Haywire Blaster.  The second shard carbine Scourge is in the wings as it were.  As you can see, I haven't really started work on their wings yet.  I tried edge highlighting the feathers on the Solarite, but I eventually got impatient.  Then, when my rush work was obviously not panning out I tried dry brushing.  That didn't work to my liking so I'll have to start over.  I'll probably go back to trying to edge highlight them.  Ugh.  Still, I love these models.

Once I'm finished with these five I'll buy another box.  I plan on running one unit of ten Scourges with four Haywire Blasters.

WIP Dark Eldar (various)

As always, lots of clean up still to do on all of these.  I'm not pleased with the Agonizers.  I tried layering instead of my usual technique of wet blending.  I did this because I was painting them all in a batch and wet blending demands a little more individual attention.  I think I'll stick to wet blending on power weapons from now on. The transition of layering is just too abrupt without glazing.  I'll probably add more coats of wash to see if I can fix it.

Marvel at the terrible color transition!

Lastly, I was going over my Wracks and I spotted an unfortunate miscast on one of their ankles.

I called GW up and they sent me another box so I can't be too angry about it.  I'm going to try to green stuff the ankle back into passable form.  Net result:  I just got five free Wracks.

So thats a full squad of ten most likely.  Although, I am playing with the idea of two squads of five in Venoms.  The problem is, Wracks aren't my first choice for claiming objectives.  The lack of grenades being their biggest problem in my mind.  I'm thinking a squad of ten to hold rear objectives is their best use for me.  Now, a tough decision.  Acothyst with Hex Rifle or Acothyst with splinter pistol/venom blade.  I do like the cheaper combo.  I was originally going with the SP/VB combo so that I could use the Hex Rifle bit on my next Haemonculus, but seeing as I have two now its back as a possibility.